On the evening of September 8, the next Bellator Champions Series tournament will be held at the Pekanga Arena in San Diego, California, USA. The main event of the event will be a title fight between two Russian fighters.
Current lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov will defend his belt in a fight with Alexander Chablius. And this is arguably one of the most competitive and intriguing fights you can have outside of the UFC. Two very cool, high-level all-round fighters, and for the first time in Usman’s entire career, his superiority over his opponent is questioned.
Shabliy and Usman actively heated up the fight:
Failed doping test and mental weakness. Usman vs Shabliy – conflict of ideologies
As a rule, Nurmagomedov’s fights follow one scenario: he simply declassifies his opponents, next to them they stop looking like professional fighters and as if they were entering the cage for the first time. The level is so different that Usman usually leaves the cage unscathed. Yes, you can say that his big name gave him a good push, but in the cage he does everything himself. And there Nurmagomedov did not lose a single round and did not leave any chance to his opponents.
Javier Mendez, who worked with both Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev, considers Usman to be the most talented fighter he ever trained: “This is an easy question. The most talented fighter I’ve ever trained is Usman Nurmagomedov. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get the recognition he deserves because he doesn’t compete in the UFC. If you’re not in the mainstream, you’re not going to get the recognition you deserve. That will happen until he ends up in the UFC at some point, but it would be stupid for the PFL and Bellator to let him go because he’s already a superstar.”
By the way, Daniel Cormier also shares the same opinion as Mendes. Usman is very good in stance, like his brother Umar, but bigger and with longer levers. Nurmagomedov takes full advantage of this advantage. He has excellent range work and excellent multi-floor kicks. This allows Usman to keep his opponents at a distance and shoot them from there. Plus excellent footwork and good dodging, which helps Nurmagomedov to easily evade attacks.
Of course, there are also sparring matches in the arsenal. Usman calmly performs passes with both one and two legs, and also very confidently controls his opponents, despite the fact that he is inferior to Islam in pure strength. A huge advantage is that Usman constantly works closely with Makhachev and Khabib in training camps. This is an underrated factor – working with the best always makes you better. The advantage of Nurmagomedov’s team is also the presence of high-level sparring partners. After them, most opponents in the cage no longer seem so dangerous.
Khabib and Usman Nurmagomedov
Photo: From Usman Nurmagomedov’s personal archive.
However, Chabliy is a very high-level test for Usman. In stand-up, Alexander focuses mainly on boxing, gives magnificent multi-punch combinations with his hands, very beautiful twos and mixes all this with effective kicks, roundhouse kicks and tight knees. Chablius has very good speed, has a great sense of distance, can calmly work on counterattacks or can pin down. Ilia Topuria does something similar in the UFC.
But Ousman Shabliy’s boxing is not impressive at all: “Well, I think there are just no hands there. No boxing! His hands are prepared for kicks. Look at my fight with Primus and look at his fight with Primus. How many accentuated blows I delivered, how I finished this fight. And how he fought.”
Chablius brilliantly faced Freire in the last fight:
Chablius is a Bellator Grand Prix finalist! The Russian beat the star and awaits Nurmagomedov
With all Chablius’ advantages in stand-up, he is far from a one-sided fighter. Yes, he did not have opponents with the same level of fighting as Nurmagomedov, but Alexander is quite good in this aspect and in wrestling. If you need to fight yourself, Chablius will do it calmly. There will be questions about the ability to defend against Usman’s wrestling, but Alexander has enough skills to look competitive on the ground. Both also breathe well throughout the fight.
For Chablius, the fight with Usman is a huge challenge. He could very well dismantle the undefeated top and loudly declare himself to the whole world. Alexander is definitely stronger in handstand and is unlikely to be much inferior in other skills. Most likely, there will be no sparks here, so you shouldn’t have high expectations for the fight. It is much more likely that a tactical shootout will take place between two fighters who successfully neutralize each other’s strengths.
Alexander Shabliy
Photo: bellator.com
In any case, Usman and Chabliy are among the best lightweights in the world, in the future their paths may cross again, perhaps under the auspices of another organization. And Alexander has a good chance to shake off the greatness of the Nurmagomedovs and take the belt from Usman. No one has done this before, so Chablius has enough motivation. We can only hope for a great fight.
